County controversy hurting business, owner says

Posted: Tuesday, Mar 19th, 2013BY: Gordon Woods

CLINTON — On Thursday, a Clinton business owner told the DeWitt County Board she felt the board was hurting local business. Denise Torbert, owner of a Clinton real estate agency and a former county board member, told board members that negative publicity generated by board controversy was keeping people from moving into the area.

More specifically, Torbert attended the Thursday board meeting to oppose a pending plan, supported by board leadership, to force the owners of Clinton Landfill into a hearing on the landfill’s proposed expansion of its chemical waste unit.

Referred to as a “siting” hearing, the attorney for the landfill’s owners Brian McGinnis has told the board that, under Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards, a hearing was not required because the expansion does not meet the EPA definition of a new pollution control facility.

Nevertheless, board members supporting a hearing are pursuing an ordinance requiring a hearing on the expansion. At least three of the board members supporting the ordinance won election to the board in November largely due to their opposition to the pending permit that would allow the chemical waste unit expansion. The permit would allow the landfill to accept substances it already is permitted to accept but at larger concentrations.